My official name is Matam Vijay Kumar, though I go by the name ‘Matam Vijay-Kumar’ in my publications. I earned my Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the Central Food Technological Research Institute, which is a premier federal research institute in India affiliated with the University of Mysore. My thesis work was focused on the influence of oxidized lipids (cholesterol oxidation products), derived from anhydrous milk fat, on lipid metabolism in laboratory animals. Afterwards, I began my post-doctoral fellowship at Georgetown University, Washington DC, where my project was on the influence of malarial parasite lipids on host innate and adaptive immunity. Following this work, I did an Immunology Fellowship at Johns Hopkins University; during this training, I was instrumental in establishing a Cytokine Core Laboratory and getting Clinical Laboratory Improvement & Amendment (CLIA) approval. My next stop was at Emory University, where I worked as a post-doctoral fellow focusing on gut microbiota and inflammatory bowel disease. While at Emory, I rose to the rank of Instructor in 2008 and Assistant Professor in 2010, while also successfully earning the CCFA’s Career Development Award and NIH-K01 Mentored Career Development Award. In 2011, along with my mentor Dr. Andrew Gewirtz, I moved to Georgia State University. After earning my first NIH-R01 in 2013, I took a tenure track position at The Pennsylvania State University. From 2013-2017, I successfully published in high impact publications (Nature Communications, Cell Metabolism) as senior author. I secured a second NIH-R01 funding in 2017 and was tenured as an Associate Professor. In Jan 2018, I moved to the University of Toledo as a tenured Associate Professor and Director of the UT Microbiome Consortium. Within a year of my appointment, I published in top journals (Cell, Gut, Mucosal Immunology) as senior author. In 2020, I was promoted to Tenured Professor. 

My lab slogan is “Gut Microbiota: We can’t live without or with it”.